Kim Jong Un promises more missile launches, despite Trump warning

Kim Jong Un promises more missile launches, despite Trump warning

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un brushed aside warnings from President Trump and vowed Wednesday to press ahead with more nuclear missiles tests in the Pacific.

Kim said "more ballistic missile rocket launching drills" are "necessary" to modernize his military's strategic capabilities. He also said his country will continue to watch “U.S. demeanors” before it decides on future actions. 

Kim's comments come a day after North Korea launched a missile over Japan for the first time, prompting a rebuke from the Japanese government and a warning from Trump.

According to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, Kim was present for his military's provocative launch over Japan. He expressed "great satisfaction" with what he called a “meaningful prelude” to containing Guam.

Trump warned Tuesday that "all options are on the table" in response to North Korea's latest missile launch, but a military one seems unlikely, security analysts said Tuesday.

"I think the administration sees that an attack would be so escalatory that we probably ought to avoid that," said Bruce Bennett, an analyst at RAND Corp.

Trump's response so far has been more measured than his earlier threat to bring "fire and fury" to North Korea. He said Tuesday that such "threatening and destabilizing actions" only increase North Korea’s isolation, adding that Pyongyang's actions show "contempt for its neighbors."

Kim, who has continuously defied world opinion in pursuit of his country's nuclear weapons program, has managed to walk up to a red line without crossing it, analysts say.

He had threatened to fire four missiles toward Guam, a U.S. territory. Instead, he sent a single missile flying over Japan, a slightly less provocative act.

"This is just short of red line," said Patrick Cronin, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security. It allows Kim to defy the United States without forcing Washington's hand. "He's seeking better leverage in what is essentially a negotiation." 

Trump did not reveal what options he is considering. "We'll see, we'll see," he said before boarding a helicopter for a trip to tour areas of Texas ravaged by Hurricane Harvey.

Cronin said Trump's more measured response Tuesday seems to reflect the discipline that his new chief of staff, retired Marine general John Kelly, has brought to the White House. 

Washington does have some options, including additional sanctions or demonstrations of force, such as flying bombers near North Korean airspace. "We cannot let this stand," Cronin said.

North Korea has twice fired rockets that it said were carrying satellites over Japan — in 1998 and 2009 — but Tuesday's launch was the first time it fired a ballistic missile over the island nation.

The Pentagon confirmed that the missile's northeastern path "did not pose a threat to North America." 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assailed the missile launch and said he and Trump agreed in a phone call to seek an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council. He quoted Trump as saying the United States was "with Japan 100%."

Abe told reporters that he and Trump saw the launch as an unprecedented threat, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.

At one point, residents in several prefectures in northern regions of Japan were told to take cover when the missile's flight path was detected.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile traveled nearly 1,700 miles and reached a maximum height of 341 miles as it flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

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Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, described the test as an "unprecedented, grave threat."

The South Korean government said in a statement that it "condemns in the strongest terms this provocation." It said if the nuclear and missile provocations continue, it will respond strongly based on a "stalwart" alliance with the United States. 

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha discussed in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson how to respond, the foreign ministry said. 

They agreed to "sternly" take action at the U.N. Security Council, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.

"The two also agreed to maintain close communication at every possible level by using such occasions, including the upcoming U.N. General Assembly scheduled for September," the foreign ministry said, according to Yonhap.

South Korea released footage Tuesday of a missile test it conducted last week in response to the North's launch.

The launch comes amid a growing confrontation between North Korea's Kim and Trump. Tuesday's launch came days after North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles into the sea and a month after its second flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, which analysts said could reach deep into the U.S. mainland when perfected.

This month U.S. and South Korean forces went ahead with their annual joint military exercises, which North Korea assailed as being provocative.